Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-09-01Epub Date: 2026-05-07DOI: 10.1177/09697330261441779
Anita Elvegaard, Dag Karterud, Jessica Hemberg
{"title":"On the verge of suicide from a suffering perspective.","authors":"Anita Elvegaard, Dag Karterud, Jessica Hemberg","doi":"10.1177/09697330261441779","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09697330261441779","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>AimTo uncover the substance of how suffering is associated with human beings with thoughts or plans about ending their lives by suicide and to bring out more diversity, complexity, and contextuality of this phenomenon. Understanding as an important virtue underscores the safeguarding of the patient's dignity as a holy element.BackgroundThe study is grounded in a caring science perspective where suffering is seen as embodied in the human being. Methodology and design: This integrative literature review presents a combination of data from both theoretical and empirical literature with a reading of selected articles. Ethical ontological questions are prerequisites for highlighting caring understanding. Through the reading of a truthful written text of experienced suffering with love and compassion, it is possible to confirm and serve life and health.Data sourcesEmbase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, and Nursing Ethics. Ethical consideration: The study was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Finnish National Board on Research Integration.ResultsThree distinct themes were identified as a basis for considerations related to suffering: (a) Suffering in time and space, (b) Bearable and unbearable suffering, and (c) Language as essential for being.ConclusionThe language of suffering in caring science is made visible. Caring understanding has an inherent ought to, embraced by ethos towards alleviation. Life-threatening suffering is revealed. Thinking of suicide as a way out can make it possible to endure the suffering. Lack of caring understanding was a threat to some of the patients' dignity. Lack of evidence exists as to whether telling the suffering story is a movement in the direction of alleviation and this calls for further research to examine if caring and caring science can embrace this suffering.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"1735-1754"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13522427/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147845213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking restraint in psychiatric services: A Kantian ethical and legal analysis.","authors":"Cemile Hurrem Ayhan, Suat Akkoyun, Kadriye Aslan, Bihter Türkmenoğlu Polat","doi":"10.1177/09697330261476255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261476255","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The use of restraint in psychiatric care remains one of the most ethically contested practices in mental health services, reflecting an enduring tension between the duty to ensure safety and the obligation to respect patient autonomy. Although coercive interventions are often justified as necessary responses to risk, their ethical legitimacy remains uncertain, particularly when examined through deontological frameworks. This theoretical paper provides a philosophical and legal analysis of restraint practices, drawing on the ethical theory of Immanuel Kant to critically evaluate the moral boundaries of coercion. Focusing on the Turkish context, the paper examines how reliance on Article 432 of the Turkish Civil Code, together with the absence of a comprehensive mental health law, shapes the use and justification of coercive interventions. The analysis suggests that current practices are largely grounded in risk-based and paternalistic models that may conflict with the Kantian imperative to treat individuals as ends in themselves. From this perspective, the routine use of restraint risks instrumentalizing patients, thereby undermining their dignity and moral agency. Integrating ethical theory, legal critique, and clinical considerations, the paper argues that restraint can only be justified under highly restrictive conditions, including strict necessity, proportionality, and use as a last resort; however, existing legal and clinical frameworks do not consistently meet these standards. The paper advances a rights-based alternative grounded in supported decision-making and psychiatric advance directives as mechanisms for preserving autonomy. By offering an interdisciplinary and normative framework that links philosophical principles with clinical practice and policy, this study contributes to nursing ethics and highlights the central role of nurses in transforming coercive care practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261476255"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148867586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-08-27DOI: 10.1177/09697330261480342
Osama Mohamed Elsayed Ramadan, Manar Fayez Alruwaili, Reda Samy, Hamda Ahmed Mohamed Eldesoky, Ghada Elsaid Ali Elsayed
{"title":"Neonatal nurses' moral agency in raising medication and treatment safety concerns in high-risk NICUs.","authors":"Osama Mohamed Elsayed Ramadan, Manar Fayez Alruwaili, Reda Samy, Hamda Ahmed Mohamed Eldesoky, Ghada Elsaid Ali Elsayed","doi":"10.1177/09697330261480342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261480342","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BackgroundIn neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), nurses may recognise medication or treatment risk before others do. Raising a concern is an ethical act, but moral agency extends beyond voice behaviour.Research question/aim/objectivesHow do neonatal nurses experience and enact moral agency when raising medication and treatment concerns in high-risk NICUs? We examined risk recognition, enactment of voice, contextual influences, and responsibility after voice.Research designQualitative Interpretive Description with abductive thematic analysis informed by an author-constructed sensitising framework. Reporting followed the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) and Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR).Participants and research contextTwenty neonatal nurses with at least 12 months of NICU experience were purposively sampled across one Level III and two Level II NICUs in northern Saudi Arabia. Arabic- or English-language interviews conducted from June to December 2025 were analysed in NVivo.Ethical considerationsA university institutional review board approved the study; identifying approval details are withheld for double-anonymised review. Research-committee authorisation was subsequently obtained at each participating hospital. Written informed consent, confidential recruitment, de-identification, and an interview distress safeguard protected participants.Findings/resultsThe interpretive account was organised into four design-congruent themes: seeing risk before harm; deciding to speak; practising within hierarchy; and carrying responsibility beyond voice. Nurses described moral noticing, strategic advocacy, and persistence. Participants described perceived legitimacy as shaped by hierarchy, leadership responsiveness, and professional and sociocultural positioning. Responsibility continued after voice, while delayed or withheld voice left moral residue.ConclusionsMoral agency was relational and institutionally conditioned. Voice-supportive NICUs require credible escalation pathways, respectful responses, and visible closure of concerns. Post-voice responsibility was a prespecified domain; 'residual accountability' is offered as a provisional analytic label for prompted accounts within that domain, not as an unprompted emergent or established construct.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261480342"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148841749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-08-21DOI: 10.1177/09697330261474000
Chengzhi Bai, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Quan Yuan, Feng Guo, Yang Liu, Cui Gao, Tangsheng Wang
{"title":"Patient gratitude, moral agency and nurses' ethical action.","authors":"Chengzhi Bai, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Quan Yuan, Feng Guo, Yang Liu, Cui Gao, Tangsheng Wang","doi":"10.1177/09697330261474000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261474000","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BackgroundNursing ethics is enacted through everyday clinical relationships as well as through formal standards. Perceived patient gratitude may function as a relational moral cue, but its association with nurses' ethically relevant workplace behaviour remains unclear.Research aimTo examine whether perceived patient gratitude was associated with nurses' workplace prosocial behaviour through moral efficacy and going beyond compliance.Research designA multicentre cross-sectional survey was conducted, and mediation analyses were performed using Hayes' PROCESS macro.Participants and research contextData were collected from 793 registered nurses working in hospitals in Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces, China.Ethical considerationsEthical approval was obtained from the relevant institutional ethics committee. Participation was voluntary and anonymous, and electronic informed consent was obtained before questionnaire completion.FindingsPerceived patient gratitude was positively associated with workplace prosocial behaviour. Moral efficacy and going beyond compliance each independently mediated this association. A significant sequential indirect effect was also identified, in which perceived patient gratitude was associated with stronger moral efficacy, which was in turn associated with greater willingness to go beyond minimum professional expectations and, subsequently, higher workplace prosocial behaviour.ConclusionsPerceived patient gratitude may be associated with ethically relevant workplace conduct when relational recognition strengthens nurses' moral capability and professionally bounded ethical initiative. However, gratitude should not be regarded as a patient obligation, a condition of appropriate care or a substitute for organisational support. Longitudinal and relational research is needed to clarify these processes and their implications for equitable nursing practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261474000"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-08-21DOI: 10.1177/09697330261474268
Optimus Hurtig
{"title":"From autonomy to well-being: Reimagining ethics consultation in dementia.","authors":"Optimus Hurtig","doi":"10.1177/09697330261474268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261474268","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Respect for patient autonomy is a cornerstone of modern bioethics, yet the gap between ethical ideals and clinical practice remains pronounced. To bridge this divide, Björk and Hirsch have proposed the introduction of a new professional role: autonomy consultants. This essay critically examines the applicability of such a role within dementia care, a context characterized by progressive cognitive decline and irreversible alterations of personal identity. Using a philosophical and theoretical analysis, illustrated through a hypothetical clinical case study, this essay examines the conflict between a patient's historical autonomy and their situated well-being in the present. The results indicate that a strict bioethical focus on autonomy risks producing unintended consequences, including situations where attempts to preserve historical autonomy may contribute to distress for individuals with advanced dementia. Consequently, this essay argues for a conceptual reformulation of the role into a well-being consultant within dementia care. Rather than focusing primarily on autonomy, this role, grounded in care ethics and person-centered care, is proposed to function as a relational mediator who supports ethical reflection by integrating the patient's life history, present experiences, relationships, and well-being when conflicts arise between historical values and current care needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261474268"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Voices behind the curtain: Women's metaphors of respectful maternity care.","authors":"Sevda Yildirim, Fatma Uslu-Sahan, Merve Mert-Karadas, Cansu Akdag Topal","doi":"10.1177/09697330261474249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261474249","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BackgroundRespectful maternity care (RMC) is a fundamental human right and ethical obligation that includes women's dignity, autonomy, emotional support, and protection from harm during childbirth. Despite the increasing global attention to RMC, limited research has explored how women subjectively conceptualize respectful care through metaphors, particularly in the Turkish context.AimThis study explored women's metaphorical perceptions of respectful maternity care and identified the underlying ethical themes reflected in these metaphors.Research designThis qualitative study employed a metaphor analysis. Data were collected online from February to March 2026. Participants completed the prompt: \"For me, respectful maternity care is like … because ….\" The data were analyzed using content analysis.Participants and research contextThe study included 109 women aged 21-78 years who had experienced vaginal childbirth in Türkiye. A total of 106 valid metaphors derived from 109 responses were analyzed.Ethical considerationsEthical approval was obtained from the Hacettepe University Faculty of Nursing Research Ethics Committee. Participation was voluntary, electronic informed consent was obtained from all participants, and anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed.ResultsWomen's metaphors for respectful maternity care were grouped into four conceptual categories: dignified, supportive, protective, and guiding care. The findings showed that women perceive respectful maternity care as a multidimensional and ethically grounded experience extending beyond clinical safety to include dignity, emotional support, protection, and professional guidance.<b>Conclusions</b><b>:</b> Women's metaphorical perceptions suggest that respectful maternity care is not merely the absence of mistreatment but a moral, relational, and rights-based form of care that recognizes women's dignity, vulnerability, autonomy, and personhood during childbirth. The findings highlight the importance of maternity care practices and professional education that actively promote respectful communication, emotional support, ethical sensitivity, and woman-centered care.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261474249"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-08-21DOI: 10.1177/09697330261476248
Maria Antuna-Casal, Marta Rios
{"title":"Beyond competence: Epistemic agency, epistemic injustice and ethical professional formation in nursing education.","authors":"Maria Antuna-Casal, Marta Rios","doi":"10.1177/09697330261476248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261476248","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper argues that competence in nursing education is ethically incomplete without epistemic agency. Contemporary nursing programmes are increasingly shaped by competencies, assessment rubrics, curriculum mapping and audit-ready evidence. These mechanisms are legitimate and necessary for accountability, but they may become ethically insufficient when they make professional formation visible mainly as performance, compliance or documentation. Epistemic agency refers to the capacity to interpret experience, justify claims, question assumptions and participate as a legitimate knower in nursing practice. Although the term may be unfamiliar to some nurse educators, its absence is visible when students are trained to enact standards without being equally supported to reason about uncertainty, credibility, patient testimony and the knowledge claims embedded in care. Existing commitments to reflection, critical thinking, evidence-based practice, person-centred care and student voice provide important educational values, yet they often lack a sufficiently explicit account of the epistemic harms that occur when credibility, intelligibility and authority are unequally distributed. They do not fully explain how some knowers are believed while others are doubted, how some forms of knowledge become authoritative while others are treated as anecdotal and how nursing knowledge itself may be positioned as practical implementation rather than disciplinary contribution. Epistemic agency cannot be secured merely by asking students to think critically or nurses to listen more attentively. Such responses underestimate the social, institutional and curricular conditions through which knowledge is made credible, intelligible and actionable. Drawing on social epistemology, nursing ethics and nursing knowledge development, this discussion paper reframes epistemic agency as a condition of ethical professional formation beyond competence alone. No empirical data are reported. Practical reflexive prompts are offered for curriculum leaders, nurse educators, clinical supervisors and students.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261476248"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-08-18DOI: 10.1177/09697330261474059
Natana de Morais Ramos, Matheus Tavares França da Silva, Maria Beatriz Nunes de Carvalho, Adriana Catarina de Souza Oliveira, Rhanna Emanuela Fontenele Lima de Carvalho
{"title":"Healthcare professionals' conceptualisation of care violations as deviance: a qualitative study.","authors":"Natana de Morais Ramos, Matheus Tavares França da Silva, Maria Beatriz Nunes de Carvalho, Adriana Catarina de Souza Oliveira, Rhanna Emanuela Fontenele Lima de Carvalho","doi":"10.1177/09697330261474059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261474059","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BackgroundViolations in healthcare practice represent significant ethical and clinical challenges. Although often categorized as technical failures, they are strongly influenced by organizational culture and professional decision-making. Understanding how frontline practitioners conceptualize these deviations is essential for strengthening patient safety and ethical practice.ObjectiveTo explore the meanings attributed by healthcare professionals to violations in clinical practice.MethodsThis qualitative study employed online focus groups with 26 healthcare professionals from different disciplines, predominantly from the nursing workforce (73%). Data were collected using a structured discussion script, transcribed verbatim and analysed through Bardin's thematic content analysis. The study followed the COREQ guidelines to ensure methodological rigor. Ethical approval was obtained (Protocol 5.871.911).Ethical considerationsThe study was approved by the relevant Research Ethics Committee (Protocol No. 5.871.911). All participants received information about the study and provided informed consent before data collection. Participation was voluntary, and confidentiality and anonymity were protected throughout data collection, analysis and reporting.ResultsParticipants described violations as conscious deviations from safe practice and acknowledged their potential consequences for patient safety. The findings reveal a process of normalization of deviance driven by precarious working conditions, institutional traditions, and resource constraints. Although participants' perceptions converged with theoretical definitions regarding the operational characteristics of violations, their formal conceptual understanding remained limited. A tension also emerged between learning-oriented strategies and persistent punitive approaches focused on individual culpability.ConclusionHealthcare professionals recognize key elements of violations and emphasize the role of continuing education in addressing them. However, conceptual gaps and punitive cultures hinder the full appropriation of the construct in clinical practice. These findings contribute to nursing ethics by highlighting how organizational conditions shape the ethical management of deviations from safe practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261474059"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-08-18DOI: 10.1177/09697330261476264
Mohamad Firdaus Mohamad Ismail, Ferry Efendi, Siti Zuhaidah Shahadan, Mohd Rosdi Mohd Bukhari
{"title":"Faith-informed professionalism and gender interaction in nursing.","authors":"Mohamad Firdaus Mohamad Ismail, Ferry Efendi, Siti Zuhaidah Shahadan, Mohd Rosdi Mohd Bukhari","doi":"10.1177/09697330261476264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261476264","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Contemporary nursing practice increasingly takes place within culturally, religiously, and ethically plural healthcare environments. Although professional standards provide a shared ethical foundation, limited conceptual attention has been given to how nurses' religious moral identities influence ethical reasoning during cross-gender care. Existing discussions of professionalism remain largely grounded in secular ethical perspectives, leaving insufficient exploration of how faith-based moral traditions may contribute to professional identity and moral agency. This paper examines gender interaction in nursing through Islamic ethical perspectives and proposes a conceptual framework of faith-informed professionalism to contribute to broader discussions of ethical pluralism in nursing ethics. A conceptual normative analysis was undertaken through critical engagement with literature on nursing professionalism, moral agency, ethical pluralism, and Islamic ethics. Relevant concepts were identified, interpreted, and synthesised to develop a conceptual framework integrating professional standards with Islamic ethical principles relevant to gender interaction in nursing practice. The analysis argues that gender interaction should be understood not only as a matter of professional conduct but also as an ethically significant encounter in which Muslim nurses negotiate professional responsibilities alongside religiously informed moral commitments. Drawing on the concepts of <i>haya'</i>, <i>adab</i>, <i>niyyah</i>, <i>ikhtilat</i>, <i>darurah</i>, and <i>maqasid al-shariah</i>, the paper develops faith-informed professionalism as a conceptual framework that explains how faith-based moral commitments may coexist with professional standards while maintaining patient welfare, professional accountability, and equitable care as overriding priorities. A clinical illustration demonstrates the framework's application as a guide for ethical reflection rather than a prescriptive model for practice. Faith-informed professionalism extends contemporary discussions of moral agency, professional identity, and ethical pluralism by recognising that religious moral traditions may complement, rather than compete with, established professional standards. The proposed framework offers a theoretical contribution to nursing ethics and provides a foundation for future empirical research and educational development within multicultural healthcare environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261476264"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148800361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nursing EthicsPub Date : 2026-08-18DOI: 10.1177/09697330261476262
Jinshuo Liu, Yonghui Ma
{"title":"Care episodes and the ethics of continuity: Nursing practice under the European health data space.","authors":"Jinshuo Liu, Yonghui Ma","doi":"10.1177/09697330261476262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261476262","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The European Health Data Space (EHDS) reconfigures continuity of care by framing healthcare delivery around 'specific episodes of care' and supporting cross-border interoperability of electronic health data. Rather than relying primarily on sustained interpersonal relationships between patients and healthcare professionals, the EHDS seeks to secure continuity through institutionalised informational infrastructures that enable timely access to standardised electronic records across settings and jurisdictions.This paper examines the ethical implications of this shift for nursing practice. Based on the conceptual distinctions between relational continuity, informational continuity, and managerial continuity, we argue that while the EHDS strengthens informational continuity, it does not secure the ethical goods traditionally sustained through relational continuity, including trust, meaningful informed consent, and clearly allocated accountability. Nurses occupy a pivotal position at the intersection of documentation, interpretation, and patient communication, and thus bear newly intensified ethical and legal burdens within episodic, data-driven care environments.We analyse three emerging areas of concern: trust-building under conditions of mediated data access, the growing demand for supporting patient autonomy in cross-border data governance, and the diffusion of accountability across fragmented care episodes. The paper concludes by proposing institutional safeguards, including structured training, standard operating procedures, participatory system design, and clearer responsibility allocation, to ensure that informational continuity can coexist with ethically defensible nursing practice. In doing so, we offer an interpretative account of how data infrastructures reshape the moral landscape of care without reducing nursing ethics to data governance alone.</p>","PeriodicalId":49729,"journal":{"name":"Nursing Ethics","volume":" ","pages":"9697330261476262"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148799955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}